11. Annette

When I wake up in the morning, Rukh is not there. I panic for a moment before realizing that even if he did leave me all alone, I’ll be fine. It’s not like I haven’t been alone my entire life.

But before I can even stand up, I hear footsteps. I jump up, throwing my hands up to defend myself.

“Put your hands down, it’s just me. Not that you could do much damage.”

“I thought you left me,” I say, ignoring the insult. He’s wrong, anyways. I could do a lot of damage. At least, enough to allow myself some time to run away.

“I went out to get you something to eat before our journey,” he grunts, handing me two tizrets. “This is all I could find. Later we can look for more.”

“Thank you,” I say, taking the fruits from him.

“While you eat, I’m going to do a quick sweep of the area. If no one is near, then you can take a quick bath in the pond outside before you change into these clothes.”

He tosses me a pair of brown pants and a black long-sleeved shirt. Unable to help myself, I’m immediately wary.

“Whose dead body did you take these off of?” I ask. He chuckles, making my cheeks heat up with anger.

“What makes you think I killed someone for them?”

“Did you?”

“No.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“If I had killed someone for them, don’t you think they would be covered in blood?”

“No. You can easily kill someone without spilling blood.”

“Fine.” He sighs. “I don’t care if you believe me. Just eat the damn fruit, and then once I give you the all-clear, you will bathe and put on the clothes. I won’t repeat myself again.”

With that, he walks out of the cave. I roll my eyes and hurriedly peel open the fruit, immediately taking a bite.

“Mmm,” I moan.

Tizret may not be my favorite, but it’s the first thing I’ve eaten in almost a day. Before long, I’ve finished both of them and Rukh is back. I follow him outside to the pond, where he stands with his arms crossed.

“If you think I’m going to let you watch me, you’re sorely mistaken.”

“Who said anything about watching you? But I will be standing here the whole time in case someone comes by.”

I stare at him for a moment before deciding that he definitely won’t budge.

“Just don’t look,” I warn him.

The asshole doesn’t even answer, he just looks slightly away from me, staring into the forest. I sigh but begin undressing. I haven’t had a bath in a week now, and I’ve needed one since the first day.

Once I’m naked, I sink myself as much as I can into the water, though it’s not very deep. I sit on the bottom half of my legs, and the water only covers me to the waist. Without soap, all I can do is use the water to scrub myself as best as I can. Still better than nothing.

Ten minutes later, I’ve washed every last bit of dirt from my skin and hair, and I walk out of the pond. But I quickly realize that I have no way to dry myself off before getting into my new clothes, and I don’t love the idea of having to get in them like this and walk around in wet clothes all day.

“I, um, I don’t have a towel to dry off with,” I tell him.

“And?”

“And I’m soaking wet,” I state.

He chuckles, and I turn my head towards him to make sure he’s not looking at me. Does he think this is funny?

“Do you have anything I can use?” I begrudgingly ask.

“Nope.”

I sigh before wringing out my hair and turning away from him. As much as I don’t want to, I step into my new clothes, hoping they don’t get completely soaked through. Once I’m dressed, I wring out my hair one more time and head towards Rukh.

“Okay I’m dres–” I start to say, but when I look up at him, he is unrecognizable. The only way I know it’s still him is the pack slung over his shoulder.

“Before you freak out,” he says, holding up a hand. “I shapeshifted into a human form. I can’t exactly walk around looking how I normally do. It would attract too much attention, and I would like us to be able to find a place to stay before nightfall.”

“Okay.” I swallow, averting my gaze. “What now?”

“Now we walk,” he says, grabbing my old clothing and stuffing them into his pack.

As we start our journey, I find myself peeking at him when I can. He’s still taller than me, though not by much, with pale skin. His hair is now jet black and falls into his eyes. Eyes that are no longer red but green, matching mine almost perfectly. I wonder if he did that on purpose.

“Stop staring,” he mutters after a moment.

“I wasn’t,” I say, forcing myself to look forward. My face heats up for the second time today, though this time for an entirely different reason.

An hour later, we reach a small town that’s only one town over from Mellara. A lot of people from my old town visit the shops here. I let my head hang lower, hoping no one recognizes me.

As we walk, I can’t help but wonder who Rukh is here for. Surely he didn’t just pick this place at random. There must be evil here. I’m a little afraid to see what happens next, but I can’t deny that I’m curious. I want to understand what makes him work, how he does what he does, and just what it is that he does at all.

“You’re nervous,” he states.

“I don’t want to run into anyone from Mellara.”

“I see.”

We fall back into silence, and I turn my head away when we walk past a group of three women talking, just in case they recognize me and decide to make a scene.

“I feel so bad for his mom,” one of the girls says. I can’t help but listen in.

“Me, too. I wish there was something we could do for her.”

“Aleron didn’t deserve this,” another one says.

I stop, grabbing Rukh’s arm.

“They’re burying what was left of him tonight, at the Mellara cemetery.”

My blood runs cold. What was left of him? I know exactly what that means. I whip my head towards Rukh, narrowing my eyes at his too-normal face.

Aleron is the name of the boy who lived across the street from me for years. He’s the only person I’ve ever heard go by that name, so it has to be him. I think I vaguely recall that he moved to this town a few years ago.

“What?” Rukh asks.

“That boy they were just talking about? I knew him. He was nice to me. In fact, Aleron was nice to everyone. So would you like to tell me what evil he did to have warranted this?”

“What are you talking about?”

“When did you even do it? You must’ve snuck out last night while I was sleeping. And what, you thought it’d be fun to parade through town and bask in the sadness of the people mourning him?”

I feel betrayed, and I can’t even explain why. It was silly of me to trust a demon, to invent that there was goodness inside of him, to justify his bloodlust as righteousness. But I had started to believe it was true. Something inside of me is bubbling furiously to think I was so thoroughly misled.

“Lower your voice,” he whisper-shouts at me. “You’re mistaken. I did not leave the cave last night, and I definitely did not kill anyone in this town.”

“You’re lying. And I refuse to believe that Aleron did anything to deserve a death like that. Have you ever stopped to think that maybe your judgment of what’s evil and what’s not is flawed? See, this is the problem with you –”

I stop talking as he pulls me aggressively into the alley next to us and places a hand over my mouth.

“Stop. You are wrong, okay? Now stop this nonsense.”

“How can you say that?” I whisper once he removes his hand. “This is someone’s life we’re talking about.”

He sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose and closing his eyes. It’s weird to see him make such a human gesture, let alone in a human skin.

“I. Did not. Kill him.”

I stare at him, boring holes into his freakishly green eyes.

“Would you lie to me?”

“No. I have no reason to.”

He says it so quickly and so surely, that I have no choice but to think that he’s actually telling the truth.

“Fine,” I say, crossing my arms.

“That’s it? No apology for wrongly accusing me of murder?”

I narrow my eyes at him once more.

“You want an apology? You’re not getting one. Why? Because of all the murders you have committed,” I state.

“You’re going to have to stop with that narrative sooner or later. If you can’t understand why I do what I do, then you need to end this fight with me now.”

“You really didn’t do it?” I ask.

“No.”

“Then who did? And who would mutilate him so much that they can only bury ‘what was left of him?’” I ask.

“Someone else must be doing this, here and back at your last town.”

“But why?”

He shrugs before grabbing my arm and pulling me back into the street, continuing in the direction we were walking in before.

I sneak another look at him, but this time not because of his appearance. This time, it’s because I’m not sure when I started trusting him, but apparently, I do. Enough to believe that he didn’t kill Aleron.

Deep down, in spite of everything, I do think there’s something pure in all that darkness. Something that does what he does for good reasons. Something honest and trustworthy.

Does that make me crazy? To trust someone as fucked up as Rukh? To trust a demon? What does that say about me and the person I’ve always prided myself on being?

Is he better than I thought a demon could be, or am I worse?